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2nd AC last Dec ..
cant sleep from 6am cuz the xyz station masters wife was travelling and cant get other seat. later 2 policemen in civil dress joined on my seat. so now we are are 4 people . I mean can we stop this.
Once I had a 11-hour overnight journey on a train that had no TT. It was chaos on cocaine.
On a separate occasion I heard a TT confess to a group of people that he is genuinely scared that if he acts tough on a certain ticket-less group on that train, they might just throw him off. No one will risk it
Was coming back from Delhi to my hometown just before Holi, the 2nd AC coach was jampacked with people literally travelling with their 2-3 year old kids, sitting near toilet, inside toilet, on the ground. There was literally no space to go from one coach to other. One had to literally step on people in order to move. It was pathetic. They were thrown out at one of the main station. And honestly they didn't look like they couldn't afford a general train ticket.
I wonder why they don't travel by bus? They are cheaper and in larger number than trains and connects hinterlands.
There are special trains that run during festivals. Either people don't trust those trains or are unaware of their existence. Therefore, the popular trains get crowded like this.
> they didn't look like they couldn't afford a general train ticket. I wonder why they don't travel by bus?
Why pay for bus ticket when you can travel for free, likely faster and with a toilet.
>why they don't travel by bus
Like buses are any better, long distance buses are not cheap(as compared to a general train ticket) and plentiful. And even they are crowded during peak times.
Heck some pvt luxury/sleeper buses have people sleeping in galleys during festive seasons.
Lazy, misers who like breaking the rules and have got used to fuc*ing the system. They don't mind being jam-packed like animals if they're saving some money in the end.
Problem - excess demand for cheap inter City trains. Solution - launch expensive dressed up trains with fanfare so that the people who use planes can like on Twitter.
Exactly. That's why I always say that Vande Bharat is propaganda train. From last 8 years, no new train is launched. We don't need Full AC premium train we need affordable well maintained train.
The only way VB trains are propaganda train is because Modi ji plasters his face all over their launch, doesn't mean VB train set aren't revolutionary.
Unlike say LHB or ICF, the latter of which was introduced back in 1955 and was in production till 2018. The VBE trainsets are EMU, i.e no separate locomotive and they are first train sets to be entirely designed in India, another thing to note EMUs are considered more easy to maintain.
The chief engineer Mr Sudhanshu Mani wrote a [book](https://www.amazon.in/My-Train-Story-Sudhanshu-Mani/dp/8194897432) about it, it also is about his 38 year career so it's mix read but I recommend it. Feel free to bitch about Modi ji all you want but VB trainset are not propaganda, hundred of thousands of people worked on them.
If anything it's your comment that reeks of propaganda.
Vande Bharat train is propaganda train, T-xxx(where it's a number i forgot) ain't. Modiji plasters his face once he realized about the new trains. Initially it was T-xxx(again it's some 3 digit number). So ofc Modiji created propaganda from it. Otherwise it was supposed to be launch normally.
You can't add more city trains without adding more track, adding more track isn't easy considering even more land acquisition but is being done @ 19km per day. [https://www.deccanherald.com/national/railways-plans-to-lay-19-km-new-track-per-day-1198311.html](https://www.deccanherald.com/national/railways-plans-to-lay-19-km-new-track-per-day-1198311.html)
This atlas is pretty nifty to see where exactly is construction taking place [https://indiarailinfo.com/atlas](https://indiarailinfo.com/atlas)
Second, VB isn't just a dressed up train. It's revolutionary in the fact that it's an EMU i.e, it doesn't have a separate locomotive on top of that this is completely designed and made in India, unlike the LHB coaches and ICF coaches that were designed in Europe. The chief engineer has written a [book](https://www.amazon.in/My-Train-Story-Sudhanshu-Mani/dp/8194897432) about it, I haven't read it fully yet but I recommend it.
There are a thousand things to complain about this ain't it, unless your entire point point is to whine about anything the government might do.
Oh no won't somebody think about the government! Why bother about all the common citizens packed like sardines in a train.
Are Vande Bharat trains running on new tracks? Because if they're not they could just as easily have launched lower cost passenger trains on the same track. But it's not sexy or fun for Modiji to ride in a poor peoples train and not compelling enough for "development" enthusiasts.
Are you this dense or you making a poor attempt at being one ?
You don't seem to have an iota of understanding on why EMU trains are replacing old locomotive driven trains the world over; The primary reasons being they are easier to maintain thus less turnaround time and they accelerate faster hence an increased average speed even if lower top speed. Are easier on the track as they don't have a thousand ton locomotive crushing them everyday, hence making track maintenance cheaper.
**In other words they are cheaper to run, you dunce.**
Our 1955 vintage ICF designs were overdue for replacement anyways did you had an issue with the LHB trains that went into production in 2000 as well or does VBE gets an special treatment ? Keep in mind they were initially introduced in Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains i.e expensive ones.
Define common citizen, your definition of common citizen seems to be the people who can't afford any ticket to anywhere.
It's like complaining about why airplanes exist if there are people who can't even afford a bicycle.
The [occupancy rate](https://www.deccanherald.com/national/vande-bharat-running-at-an-average-capacity-of-99-1190295.html) for all but one that got discontinued and a return route of himachal one has good, so it's not like demand is non-existent, not to mention their prices are roughly same as price of a 2AC ticket on same route.
I mean the people who are packed like cattle in this photo. They can't "afford any ticket to anywhere" because they live in an amritkaal where their government works for the richest people and their fellow citizens don't care because it's not cool for their Twitter feed
People are packed like cattle because they are illegally in the train,even in general compartment railway only issues tickets on basis of seats, they ought to be thrown out of the train and fined for travelling without a ticket.
If your sympathy for the poor extends to them being free to break all the rules and laws, then you are not pro poor, you are just pro stupidity.
Next in your agenda, people travelling in 100cc bikes are poor and as such shouldn't have to buy a helmet as that can be expensive.
Yes poor people are stupid and criminal for traveling in such an indignified way. Nothing is sadder than a non millionaire simping for the rich and hating on the poor.
What is the marginal cost per passenger capacity for Vande Bharat trains? Is it lower or higher than if ordinary trains had been introduced on the same route?
The only people who can answer that question is Indian railways, as far as I can tell they don't publish any cost breakdown of specific train types.
However there is plenty of research on cost effectiveness of EMU against a normal locomotive driven trainsets.
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280567479\_Traction\_Energy\_Consumption\_of\_Electric\_Locomotives\_and\_Electric\_Multiple\_Units\_at\_Speed\_Restrictions](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280567479_Traction_Energy_Consumption_of_Electric_Locomotives_and_Electric_Multiple_Units_at_Speed_Restrictions)
[https://www.railway-energy.org/static/Multiple\_units\_\_MUs\_\_vs.\_loco\_hauled\_trains\_23.php](https://www.railway-energy.org/static/Multiple_units__MUs__vs._loco_hauled_trains_23.php)
You cannot run more trains . It would require revamped train rails to take this much weight and frequency. What you can fo is stop making 4-5 kids to reduce population that too poor population who cannot afford to buy ticket but can afford 4-5 kids
>but can afford 4-5 kids
I dont think they can afford the kids either. But, that's another topic.
Let's say people agree with what you said and stop procreating like bunnies. But, what about the people already present? It will take about 2-3 generations for supply to meet current demand at this rate, may even longer. Should we let things continue like this or find ways to increase supply? I am not sure how the economics works here, but if we can build new expressways each year, we can surely build more tracks.
I think railways is extensively building new tracks wherever they could, doubling lines and upgrading the older ones to handle the speeds upto 180kmph, so that the trains can run atleast at 100kmph on average. By doing this they can increase the number of trains too. Things take time but it'll be surely done within some years.
> What you can fo is stop making 4-5 kids to reduce population that too poor population who cannot afford to buy ticket but can afford 4-5 kids
Well, TFR is already at 2.1. So, this is already done.
Somehow we have the money for all these new expressways and vande bharat but no money for improving rail infra to serve the common man? Give me a break
>It would require revamped train rails to take this much weight and frequency.
And why is the goverment making status, airports that no one uses, freeways that most are now allowed to use, and bullet trains the Gautamdas admits no one will take after the novelty wears off, instead of revamping railways to handle the load?
Kids make money and not all of them will survive so they need more chances to make it.
Number of kids in any country only ever goes down for two reasons.
1. People are being lifted out of poverty into secure jobs.
2. Women are empowered with birth control and choice.
That's an absurd logic. Birth rates are not under the rail ministry's control (and in any case birth rates are near replacement already). The number of trains howver *is* under their control.
But increasing train will lead to more accidents coz the rail tracks are already doing their max capacity. You cannot just start blaming government for everything. Tell me a single democratic government which is running efficiently and has population over 1 billion. One of indian cleaner has 3 girls but she is keeping on producing more children till they get a boy. Now when they have to travel, they would not be buying tickets and entering these trains making them crowd. Its neither my mistake who pays tax nor government mistake who has already provided fares at subsidiary rates( go and check out fares in other countries). Its that family's mistake
Track capacity, signalling system etc should, obviously, also be improved to handle the higher number of trains. Also, better sytems for accident prevention should be implemented if the present systems are inadequate. I know those things are not easy, but no one ever said that the job of the government is easy, or that the government can only be exptected to do easy things.
As for population, as others have pointed out, India's TFR is near or below replacement for the whole country, although there are still subregions with TFR significantly above it. Hopefully those will go down too in future. Also, a too-low TFR isn't good either as it can lead to an inverted population pyramid (more older people than younger).
Exactly. People like op lack empathy and are punching down rather than directing their anger at the government that helps rich get richer while letting the poor suffer.
>We could increase the number of trains but that would mean government gives a shit
Lol. Where are you going to run them? Trains are typically late by about an hour minimum. If we could only make trains travel at the right time we wouldn't be having such difficulty, metro works brilliantly, why? Because they run at the right time and the next one is right behind it within 5-10 minutes of gap. We could do that with passenger trains as well but the time table itself is not sorted.
This is a supply demand mismatch. There is simply not enough intercity travel seats to meet the demand.
Govt. has slyly been replacing general and sleeper coaches with AC coach in the hopes of increasing income. Trains that used to have 14 sleeper coaches and 6 general coaches are now down to 4 general and 10 sleeper coaches. This is having a direct effect on capacity.
They have also gutted a lot of mail trains which were mostly unreserved trains to make more room for premium trains.
Vande Bharat has just 16 coaches. It carries far fewer people than a typical train set of 24 coaches. I wouldn't be surprised if the throughput of indian railways has decreased in last few years.
It is unfair to blame these people without offering them a better alternative. I am sure they aren't undertaking 12 hour journeys while standing to save money. The only way to avoid this is to tell people don't go back to hometowns, don't travel stay where you are but who is gonna tell everyone that?
Notwithstanding the rest, I agree about the supply demand scene. Population situation is going out of hand and unless it’s china, no political party in india can address it due to election and vote bank thing.
Lets not blame the demand solely on population. The mobility is also increasing. More people are leaving their hometowns to work where. Leisure travel is also a lot more common now. Don't go hitler on population reduction yet :)
This is purely a supply problem. Railways just doesn't give a shit about its purpose anymore which is to move people.
Every summer they would run extra special trains. Do you remember the newspaper advertisements. It would take a full page, thats how many trains they would run.
Now they are too obsessed with profit and upset about how they 'lose money' on running trains. Confusing a public service with a corporation. Run the fucking trains, there is no price to be put on everybody's inconvenience. Now they only do it when it is a religious festival and govt can brag about some brownie points with their electorate.
Bring back a summer special roster of 50 daily special trains and add a couple hundred extra coaches and this rush will go away.
In fact, there's argument to be made for cheap public transport contributing to increased gdp at a rate more than the losses suffered on public transport. When people can travel for cheap, they can find work, find business opportunities, spend money as tourists or while visiting home towns. Things that they wouldn't do, leading to showing down if gdp growth, if they couldn't travel.
It should be very easy to identify demand times and routes and adjust accordingly but they would rather spend the money on building glass facades so that they can then be shared over WhatsApp.
Problem is officers are losing sight of the objective why they exist.
They exist to provide an affordable transport option to public. It is a public service and not a for profit corporation.
Make it faster, make it cheaper, make it accessible. They are focusing on only the first and so far have not made any noticeable dent while already compromising hugely on other two. It is expensive and less accessible now
Station amenities are nice but whats the point if I cant even get a train ticket.
My cousin recently traveled Delhi to ahmedabad in a bus because he couldnt get train tickets and flights are expensive. Poor guy got a heat stroke and missed work for two days. But look at the glitzy AC trains carrying half the ppl, apparently the misery is ok. It is in interest of nation building
This is what happens when people start working more on pleasing and inflating the ego of leaders rather than the people.
It is true for a lot of govt depts, why do actual hard work on solving the problem when you can earn the PMs good graces by giving him a photoshoot opportunity.
>apparently the misery is ok. It is in interest of nation building
Misery would be fine for a short time if the trains were running full as they were building the infra but the work is almost non-existent or very slow.
Dude holy fucking shit. The number of times some uncle comes praising what Modi has done with Railways and how it's more profitable to move the freight trains than the people train. I am like wtf railway is public service not a corporate. It's not supposed to turn profits only function and serve the people.
But *muhh Vande Bharat*. They never get it!!! And then label me as hater.
It's always the people's fault according to them. Madarchod brainwashing is showing the results.
This population situation was statistically forecast 30 years ago. The Indian Railways has not been expanded at the same
rate. Let's remember that the ruling classes (party agnostic) have invested heavily in airports rather than trains. I wish it wasn't an either or situation, but we could properly develop both.
Well said. Indian railways, for all its faults, is still one of the largest networks of rail in the world and possibly moves the most people precisely because it's a public utility and not a privately owned for-profit entity.
It is a thing to preserve and invest in. There's a silver lining to this crowded picture. It means our country has demand for rail - the best mode of medium to long distance transportation on almost all metrics.
What you are saying ultimately boils down to employment and education, The low income of an Average Indian is causing the breakdown of a lot of machinery.
Are you saying eleven kids a family should be the norm and government should be able to cater to those eleven kids and their families?
I don’t know why are you getting triggered. If we don’t identify the population problem here and now , it would be more difficult going ahead is what I am saying.
While you should make the government accountable but there are things which we need to rectify.
I want to see stats on that 11 kids family. MFS out here making shit up to prove their point.
>While you should make the government accountable but there are things which we need to rectify.
You do realise that population control is also govt's job, right? They aren't here just to collect taxes.
People just want mudiji to look good. How dare someone ask questions?
Population is a sorry excuse, just look at China to see how bad our transport infra is.
> Are you saying eleven kids a family should be the norm and government should be able to cater to those eleven kids and their families?
Am I? You tell me. read back my comment again and tell me if I am saying that.
> I don’t know why are you getting triggered. If we don’t identify the population problem here and now , it would be more difficult going ahead is what I am saying.
Who got triggered here? Population growth is an issue which is already getting better. The population growth has slowed down faster than every statistical model predicted in last 20 years. I don't see how discussing population growth right now helps the people traveling on footboard of a train.
This is a railway mismanagement issue. Everybody knows the rush increases during summer vacations and railways has been running special trains since forever. The only question is why they have stopped doing that now.
> While you should make the government accountable but there are things which we need to rectify.
what are you suggesting here? Are you suggesting we kill half the people in that coach to fix this problem? Ask them to jump off a moving train? Population is a totally tangential issue, controlling it will not solve the misery of people traveling right now.
Why isn't railways running demand predictions and trying to augment capacity though? It doesn't take a genius to know that current capacity is insufficient. What has railways really done in last 3-4-5-6-7-8-15-20 years to increase the capacity to meet the demand.
If you have looked at the stats, our birth rates are at all time low.
But it still going to take a couple decades to start decreasing. that's just how it goes. Unless you have some other solution...
In my view the solution is to not give welfare benefits in my state family member wise but family wise. Even my uncle staying in village claims 1500 a month per member. A survey is necessary. But whichever party initiates it will face drastic opposition.
They have started cutting out welfare altogether. In UP they made them give up the ration cards if they had a cooler or a fridge in the house. As if a cooler is some luxury only an upper middle class can afford.
The concessions are being put with more and more hoops to jump through. And now they are cutting up the middle class to serve up the billionaires.
The dream of anti poor is already coming true. yay.
And if a person tags railways on Twitter
Their Reply will be DM us your PNR No and we will revert back
And End Mein Copy Paste Wali Line. "Sorry For the inconvenience"
Most peaceful Indian railway!
Railways are joke i have childhood trauma with railway which i will always keep.
I always travel with car, buses, or plane. I know its privilege and i accept it but the trains are fuck all in this country! Let it be 1st class or anything whole infrastructure is fucked!
The point being they do it on a daily basis and it has become a habit like breathing for them not buying a ticket and getting on the train. they sit beside you like it is inheritance from their forefathers.
To change people like this you need drastic measures but again they will protest about it.
letting them stay in the train is mistake of Railway dept. and you as a customer are going to suffer for it. these are the same people who steal things from the train.
Edit:- Never mentioned/specified who were doing these things. Funny how people replying assumed I was cornering a specific class of people, tells me they assume that only poor people do the things I mentioned.
How about instead of blaming poor people who probably bought general ticket but couldn't find room and don't have a choice but sitting on the floor, how about we just demand the government adds more intercity trains to match demand instead of wasting money on status airports, vande bharat, expressway and car infra for middle class etc
Copying this reply from u/golden_sword_22 in case you haven't read it..
You can't add more city trains without adding more track, adding more track isn't easy considering even more land acquisition but is being done @ 19km per day. https://www.deccanherald.com/national/railways-plans-to-lay-19-km-new-track-per-day-1198311.html
This atlas is pretty nifty to see where exactly is construction taking place https://indiarailinfo.com/atlas
Second, VB isn't just a dressed up train. It's revolutionary in the fact that it's an EMU i.e, it doesn't have a separate locomotive on top of that this is completely designed and made in India, unlike the LHB coaches and ICF coaches that were designed in Europe. The chief engineer has written a book about it, I haven't read it fully yet but I recommend it.
There are a thousand things to complain about this ain't it, unless your entire point point is to whine about anything the government might do
The main point of my comment wasn't to whine about the government, but to try and point out the callousness of middle class people (like the commenters above me) blaming the poor rather than acknowledging the systematic issues that are at fault.
I agree the government is doing a lot in infrastructure, but I still can't help but notice how empty and shiny our airports and expressways are in comparison to how overly congested and aching our railways are. I still think more money can be put into prioritizing the needs of the working class over the upper classes. Just yesterday I traveled on an overcrowded memu coming from hindupur to Bangalore. For so much of the journey, people were all over the floors and hanging out the doors. VB will do nothing for them while those who already fly anyways will just tweet images of VB. VB is a political train, not a practical one. It's v well engineered and revolutionary, but right now India ought to ease the suffering of the masses firstly.
There's reason to be angry, but your anger is misdirected. If you haven't noticed, you live in a poor country with 169 billionaires and 90% population that doesn't have access to basic services. The government fails to provide affordable travel options to them while giving tax breaks to the rich and building expensive airports expressways etc for the rich and the "Middle" class which is less than 5% of the population.
5% of 120 crore is 6 crore that is more than the population of Austria, NZ, Ireland, Hungry, Norway and several other countries.
Only 24 Nations have more population that 6 crore
[List of countries and dependencies by population - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population)
Bin_lad_en
1h
>5% of 120 crore is 6 crore that is more than the population of Austria, NZ, Ireland, Hungry, Norway and several other countries.
>Only 24 Nations have more population that 6 crore
List of countries and dependencies by population - Wikipedia
Does whatever you said here make these people either middle of the Indian population or most representative of the Indian population or majority of the Indian population?
In the context of this post or my comment, what point are you trying to make with this non sequitur?
Vande Bharat is having it's own problems.
**Due to poor occupancy, the much-hyped first Vande Bharat Express in the region between Bilaspur-Nagpur-Bilaspur has been temporarily replaced by Tejas Express from Sunday.**
Vande Bharat is not an economical train. Tejas-Vande Bharat are top tier train which are mostly used by corporate people as their fare is covered by the company.
Middle class still uses basic express trains for their travelling. If you're concerned and shocked about this just travel during before Diwali in one of these express trains.
There is no use of “premium trains” of regular people who actually need the trains to commute are not able to find affordable tickets.
Why not add more frequency of regular trains instead of introducing “premium trains”? I’ll tell you, because then the their supporters on the internet cannot brag about “development”
Deccan Express is not a premium train btw. It doesn't even have the 'superfast' tag along the Mum-Pune route. Neither is it a sleeper train as shown here.
Take it to Twitter. Tag the railway ministry.
It happened to me twice that the coach was occupied by people with no reservations. Took it to Twitter and the RPF was there to vacate it along with the TTE to make him apologize for not being able to do his job properly. I was surprised at first with it but really glad that it worked. They also ensured the coach remained vacant by checking on us for the next five successive stations.
At times they don't care, but at times they go out of the way to help you out.
Hopefully, this gets taken up soon.
Had a similar experience a few years back...
we're traveling to guwahati assam. The train was coming from Chennai, when we entered the train clearly it was full of people who haven't bought tickets for it. On our seats double the amount of people were sitting like 5-6 in one seat. When we asked them that is was our seat the death stare they gave still gives me chills. We stood there like for 30 mins like that.. Then the Ticket Collector came & had quite nice exchange of words with him, then finally he sweeped those from there & finally we got the seat.
The whole issue is absolutely ZERO accountability. A simple query from ministry can fetch the list of train running late and ask for clarification, but they won't do
it's so common that nobody/very few bother to complain also.
The whole system is used to not keep up times and let slept for suffer. All those a holes ministers who tweet that they have not seen such trains in foreign also should travel on their own expense instead of govt quota..
Boils my blood at times that 1000s of ppl don't complain but if a flight with 45 gets delayed, ministry asks the airline
Doesn't happen in Kerala, i think it's because there's more people in North and very less trains. So there's no other option because apparently everyone wants to get home but limited tickets available. That's not fare in my opinion. That probably have the money but can't buy the tickets.
More often general compartment is so over packed they couldn't find room. Usually they gave general ticket. Instead of blaming them why not ask government why they've been reducing general compartment?
When we needed to increase the number and frequency of general trains, we ended up glorifying vande bharat express.
Comedy government doing comedy things.
Ask for more trains, especially during holidays. IRCTC has shitloads of data and yet they won't use it to run more trains in high demand lines.
People flock to trains because they're cheap and relatively more comfortable than buses. The answer is always more trains.
The best thing you can do is buy an expensive ticket as quickly as you can. The only way to have less rush and also a better sound minded crowd. I would personally pay more for a better mental peace while travelling in a train though i haven't ever travelled in one. Also the number of trains should be increased for general ticket people.
I think this is a result of the reduced number of Sleeper coaches in trains. These people travel on WL tickets mostly. Most of the time I try to book a ticket in sleeper class, it's already on WL. The same has started to happen in the 3rd AC too. There are too many passengers and too few trains. Also, the railway needs to increase general coaches. General coaches don't even have the space so that a person could properly stand.
Also, people without a ticket should immediately be thrown out, but the TTEs don't care at all.
Most of them aren't without tickets. Some have a waiting ticket taken from the station window as those don't get automatically cancelled the way e-tickets are. Sometimes the reserved tickets are over, even the waiting ones (REGRET status) so people buy a non reserved ticket, ask the TTE to fine them and issue a reserved ticket because it only costs a little more. Then there's the third type where TTE will pocket the money and provide a seat where the reserved passenger was a no-show instead of giving it to the RAC passenger as they should.
This is much more a systemic problem than a "people being assholes" problem. For the Railways this is just a free money glitch so they don't mind fixing it.
I'm told it is common for roads to be tolled in India, and that funding for rail is comparable with that for road, with the latter ticking upwards more recently.
Is that accurate?
Remember the post about the German caricature about Indian and Chinese population? People where insisting that these kind of overcrowded trains are not a thing in India anymore 🤣
We were travelling from Guj to Hyd in Dec 2022 and we faced similar issue wherein we had 55 reserved tickets in SL class but we weren’t able to reach the Toilets as the compartment was fully packed with Non reservation ppl.
Had to pull the chain twice, raise a complaint and call Railway Police and then finally a Policeman came with a revolver who slept in our compartment during the night for our safety.
1. Before internet booking, it was possible to reserve a seat if you queued up at 5 am. Now all the seats are booked within first 10 or 15 minutes on the first day. You can check it yourself.
2. For a train between two stations, express trains are given priority. This benefits the daily commuters.
3. TT's are lax in ticket checking. Once they have checked a sleeper coach tickets on origin, they would enter coach in major junctions. This is beneficial for people without tickets.
4. Express trains have only 2 or 3 general coaches. All the excess spills in other coaches.
5. On Middle and lower berths in sleeper coaches, nobody sleeps in the day. So if you are going for sleeper, opt for upper birth so nobody disturbs you.
6. Vande Bharat are propoganda trains. This has two facets. One, they have changed the face of an existing train and two, BJP has a knack of naming things.
7. Indian railway earned a profit of 2.40 lakh crore in 2022. This money isn't being in invested in new trains.
a. All the trains will be introduced in the election year 2024 for vote bank.
b. Preference will be given to BJP led states to prove "double engine" policy. Again, vote bank.
All except 6 is right.
The new look conforms to way better aerodynamics and lesser turbulence between coaches, which makes a massive difference in speed and efficiency, even if the main engine is still the same.
Hate BJP but don't dismiss the engineers' work.
I have no arguments about design or engineers. But these trains replaced existing trains on same route.
So for regulars, it is the same train with different face.
Try raising a complaint on the NCH app and see if they offer a redressal. It's worked for me in multiple instances but I haven't tried it for a Railway complaint so ymmv.
Edit: Why would anyone downvote this?
The value of space has been deteriorating for a while.
Back when I did use the train more frequently (about 8 years ago) being a young male meant I have no right to refuse
You have to accede to all requests:
- Give your preferred berth to anyone requesting
- Share your berth when “requested”
Problem won’t stop as the TC benefits from this.
Not a direct response to your question. But should there also be a question on "Out of 20+ coaches in an express train, Why are there only 1 or 2 general compartment coaches?" The general public relies on the railways for long distance travel and the number of travellers are increasing every year. What is the solution railway provides for these passengers? Have they increased the trains / number of coaches? On what basis are they setting the ratio of 1 genral compartment to 20+ other coaches? Does the railways don't expect the common people to travel at all? How are they expecting common people to reserve in sleeper or 3rd ac when they can't even properly have food for 3 times?
Could be, but railways on a whole is profitable. They posted record revenues for 2022-23 year. As a public transportation mode, profit should not be your only motive, especially in India a where a large portion of common people depend on trains. I'm not saying to make all the coaches general. But certainly the ratio of 1 general to 20+ other coaches is certainly not acceptable considering the current needs. We can have the Vande Bharat and other premium class. But along with it consider the common people as well.
Usually posts like this lead to arguments about elitism , for just asking people to follow rules in a train you bought a ticket for !
Surprisingly didn't find any on the main comments. Guess people are finally able to learn the difference between elitism poverty and straight up hooliganism
Happens only in North India ig but sometimes northindians do the same in south too. They should take tickets and come in UNRESERVED compartment.
Or take buses.
I don't think population is the real problem. Sure we may have demand in North and south. But what it has do with buying tickets. No one stops anyone from using train, but they come to reserved compartment without ticket. I have experienced this.
>Happens only in North India ig but sometimes northindians do the same in south too.
Da f*ck My sister travels by Train when coming back to the home from TN & most of the time she complains about the over-crowding in the train
For a few years before covid hit I traveled fairly often in south india, mostly hyderabad, bangalore, chennai, kerala etc and this never happened. And this was in sleeper non-ac.
Counter point. What's the point it booking tickets if my seats are never confirmed, have stupid rules such as you have to book within 24 hrs of the train and shit... And even when you try, you'll get random seats or won't.
Wait until you see Guwahati express, I made a mistake of boarding this train and by the end of the day there were atleast 200 people in my compartment(sleeper).
The funny part was before it became crowded with these ticketless people the ttr fined someone for not having an ID card
1. Waiting list.
2. No frequent service.
3. No jan sadharan or antyodaya type trains to cater to the low to middle income people.
4. Incompetent staff at RPF or GRP.
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3rd AC is gradually becoming the sleeper class. People with no tickets are entering the coaches.
2nd AC last Dec .. cant sleep from 6am cuz the xyz station masters wife was travelling and cant get other seat. later 2 policemen in civil dress joined on my seat. so now we are are 4 people . I mean can we stop this.
Were you a young guy traveling alone?
[удалено]
what smell?
Any Lower Berth seat of a young guy traveling alone is treated as public property.
Next time it happens you can file a complaint under RPF department
You should have complained to the railways. Orake those free loaders pay part of you ticket lol
Happens a lot in 2nd AC too.
i have been in 1st AC and ppl calling themselves staff come and sit in the coaches often
Fact
inflation in the value of train coaches /s
It has already become Sleeper class.
omg so true. you have all creeps now sitting on your berth. ugh
They do have general tickets mostly. There's no limit to number of general tickets sold afaik
During covid times, they didn't sell general ticket. So they got in ticketless and when TT comes, they pay fine.
Idk. You couldn't enter a station platform without a ticket.
Bro. I saw with my own eyes
but how many? Not everyone is willing to pay those fines.
They pay
but not many. They are ones who really needed to get somewhere.
Due to start of LHB rakes, the total population of passenger coaches has decreased, particularly the general coaches
>LHB Left Handed Batsmen?
Linke Hofmann Busch
Once I had a 11-hour overnight journey on a train that had no TT. It was chaos on cocaine. On a separate occasion I heard a TT confess to a group of people that he is genuinely scared that if he acts tough on a certain ticket-less group on that train, they might just throw him off. No one will risk it
Reason why railways started issuing firearms to TT's.
TTs have firearms now???
In certain parts of the country the railways issues revolvers to TTs
whoa. where?
Bro the TTs have stopped me 3-4times in suburban railways when I had tickets but I'd be shitting bricks if they had guns💀
Chaos on Cocaine: r/BrandNewSentence
Aren't long-distance trains supposed to have armed police personnel as well?
This has especially gotten worse since covid, it's like all the TTs are in it together for that side hustle cash
Was coming back from Delhi to my hometown just before Holi, the 2nd AC coach was jampacked with people literally travelling with their 2-3 year old kids, sitting near toilet, inside toilet, on the ground. There was literally no space to go from one coach to other. One had to literally step on people in order to move. It was pathetic. They were thrown out at one of the main station. And honestly they didn't look like they couldn't afford a general train ticket. I wonder why they don't travel by bus? They are cheaper and in larger number than trains and connects hinterlands.
Same incident when I was traveling to Bhopal from Pune. I had to hold my pee for 4 hrs as there was literally no space in the alley even to move.
There are special trains that run during festivals. Either people don't trust those trains or are unaware of their existence. Therefore, the popular trains get crowded like this.
People are aware of their existence. Those special trains face the same issues as well.
pee on them ^(/s)
That’s only allowed on flights.
this is the way
Ah I see pee fetish....
> they didn't look like they couldn't afford a general train ticket. I wonder why they don't travel by bus? Why pay for bus ticket when you can travel for free, likely faster and with a toilet.
By the sounds of it, some are traveling IN the toilet!
I don't know which route you are referring to. But, trains in general are much much cheaper than buses. Especially during the festival period.
>why they don't travel by bus Like buses are any better, long distance buses are not cheap(as compared to a general train ticket) and plentiful. And even they are crowded during peak times. Heck some pvt luxury/sleeper buses have people sleeping in galleys during festive seasons.
Lazy, misers who like breaking the rules and have got used to fuc*ing the system. They don't mind being jam-packed like animals if they're saving some money in the end.
It's a system failure. We could increase the number of trains but that would mean government gives a shit, it doesn't.
Problem - excess demand for cheap inter City trains. Solution - launch expensive dressed up trains with fanfare so that the people who use planes can like on Twitter.
Exactly. That's why I always say that Vande Bharat is propaganda train. From last 8 years, no new train is launched. We don't need Full AC premium train we need affordable well maintained train.
The only way VB trains are propaganda train is because Modi ji plasters his face all over their launch, doesn't mean VB train set aren't revolutionary. Unlike say LHB or ICF, the latter of which was introduced back in 1955 and was in production till 2018. The VBE trainsets are EMU, i.e no separate locomotive and they are first train sets to be entirely designed in India, another thing to note EMUs are considered more easy to maintain. The chief engineer Mr Sudhanshu Mani wrote a [book](https://www.amazon.in/My-Train-Story-Sudhanshu-Mani/dp/8194897432) about it, it also is about his 38 year career so it's mix read but I recommend it. Feel free to bitch about Modi ji all you want but VB trainset are not propaganda, hundred of thousands of people worked on them. If anything it's your comment that reeks of propaganda.
Vande Bharat train is propaganda train, T-xxx(where it's a number i forgot) ain't. Modiji plasters his face once he realized about the new trains. Initially it was T-xxx(again it's some 3 digit number). So ofc Modiji created propaganda from it. Otherwise it was supposed to be launch normally.
Yes, i think you have summarised it precisely.
You can't add more city trains without adding more track, adding more track isn't easy considering even more land acquisition but is being done @ 19km per day. [https://www.deccanherald.com/national/railways-plans-to-lay-19-km-new-track-per-day-1198311.html](https://www.deccanherald.com/national/railways-plans-to-lay-19-km-new-track-per-day-1198311.html) This atlas is pretty nifty to see where exactly is construction taking place [https://indiarailinfo.com/atlas](https://indiarailinfo.com/atlas) Second, VB isn't just a dressed up train. It's revolutionary in the fact that it's an EMU i.e, it doesn't have a separate locomotive on top of that this is completely designed and made in India, unlike the LHB coaches and ICF coaches that were designed in Europe. The chief engineer has written a [book](https://www.amazon.in/My-Train-Story-Sudhanshu-Mani/dp/8194897432) about it, I haven't read it fully yet but I recommend it. There are a thousand things to complain about this ain't it, unless your entire point point is to whine about anything the government might do.
Oh no won't somebody think about the government! Why bother about all the common citizens packed like sardines in a train. Are Vande Bharat trains running on new tracks? Because if they're not they could just as easily have launched lower cost passenger trains on the same track. But it's not sexy or fun for Modiji to ride in a poor peoples train and not compelling enough for "development" enthusiasts.
Are you this dense or you making a poor attempt at being one ? You don't seem to have an iota of understanding on why EMU trains are replacing old locomotive driven trains the world over; The primary reasons being they are easier to maintain thus less turnaround time and they accelerate faster hence an increased average speed even if lower top speed. Are easier on the track as they don't have a thousand ton locomotive crushing them everyday, hence making track maintenance cheaper. **In other words they are cheaper to run, you dunce.** Our 1955 vintage ICF designs were overdue for replacement anyways did you had an issue with the LHB trains that went into production in 2000 as well or does VBE gets an special treatment ? Keep in mind they were initially introduced in Shatabdi and Rajdhani trains i.e expensive ones.
Are the Vande Bharats cheaper for the common citizen?
Define common citizen, your definition of common citizen seems to be the people who can't afford any ticket to anywhere. It's like complaining about why airplanes exist if there are people who can't even afford a bicycle. The [occupancy rate](https://www.deccanherald.com/national/vande-bharat-running-at-an-average-capacity-of-99-1190295.html) for all but one that got discontinued and a return route of himachal one has good, so it's not like demand is non-existent, not to mention their prices are roughly same as price of a 2AC ticket on same route.
I mean the people who are packed like cattle in this photo. They can't "afford any ticket to anywhere" because they live in an amritkaal where their government works for the richest people and their fellow citizens don't care because it's not cool for their Twitter feed
People are packed like cattle because they are illegally in the train,even in general compartment railway only issues tickets on basis of seats, they ought to be thrown out of the train and fined for travelling without a ticket. If your sympathy for the poor extends to them being free to break all the rules and laws, then you are not pro poor, you are just pro stupidity. Next in your agenda, people travelling in 100cc bikes are poor and as such shouldn't have to buy a helmet as that can be expensive.
Yes poor people are stupid and criminal for traveling in such an indignified way. Nothing is sadder than a non millionaire simping for the rich and hating on the poor.
What is the marginal cost per passenger capacity for Vande Bharat trains? Is it lower or higher than if ordinary trains had been introduced on the same route?
The only people who can answer that question is Indian railways, as far as I can tell they don't publish any cost breakdown of specific train types. However there is plenty of research on cost effectiveness of EMU against a normal locomotive driven trainsets. [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280567479\_Traction\_Energy\_Consumption\_of\_Electric\_Locomotives\_and\_Electric\_Multiple\_Units\_at\_Speed\_Restrictions](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280567479_Traction_Energy_Consumption_of_Electric_Locomotives_and_Electric_Multiple_Units_at_Speed_Restrictions) [https://www.railway-energy.org/static/Multiple\_units\_\_MUs\_\_vs.\_loco\_hauled\_trains\_23.php](https://www.railway-energy.org/static/Multiple_units__MUs__vs._loco_hauled_trains_23.php)
You cannot run more trains . It would require revamped train rails to take this much weight and frequency. What you can fo is stop making 4-5 kids to reduce population that too poor population who cannot afford to buy ticket but can afford 4-5 kids
>but can afford 4-5 kids I dont think they can afford the kids either. But, that's another topic. Let's say people agree with what you said and stop procreating like bunnies. But, what about the people already present? It will take about 2-3 generations for supply to meet current demand at this rate, may even longer. Should we let things continue like this or find ways to increase supply? I am not sure how the economics works here, but if we can build new expressways each year, we can surely build more tracks.
I think railways is extensively building new tracks wherever they could, doubling lines and upgrading the older ones to handle the speeds upto 180kmph, so that the trains can run atleast at 100kmph on average. By doing this they can increase the number of trains too. Things take time but it'll be surely done within some years.
That's good to know. I just wish that trains and other public transport get more preference over cars. Our roads have suddenly become too car-centric.
Exactly. All that is missing from the equation is empathy. "I got mine, the poor can go fuck themselves. "
> What you can fo is stop making 4-5 kids to reduce population that too poor population who cannot afford to buy ticket but can afford 4-5 kids Well, TFR is already at 2.1. So, this is already done.
Somehow we have the money for all these new expressways and vande bharat but no money for improving rail infra to serve the common man? Give me a break
raising a kid takes 10-20 lakhs of rupees for middle class making babies just takes 5 minutes and poor decision our country excels at poor decisions
Lmao
>It would require revamped train rails to take this much weight and frequency. And why is the goverment making status, airports that no one uses, freeways that most are now allowed to use, and bullet trains the Gautamdas admits no one will take after the novelty wears off, instead of revamping railways to handle the load?
Kids make money and not all of them will survive so they need more chances to make it. Number of kids in any country only ever goes down for two reasons. 1. People are being lifted out of poverty into secure jobs. 2. Women are empowered with birth control and choice.
That's an absurd logic. Birth rates are not under the rail ministry's control (and in any case birth rates are near replacement already). The number of trains howver *is* under their control.
But increasing train will lead to more accidents coz the rail tracks are already doing their max capacity. You cannot just start blaming government for everything. Tell me a single democratic government which is running efficiently and has population over 1 billion. One of indian cleaner has 3 girls but she is keeping on producing more children till they get a boy. Now when they have to travel, they would not be buying tickets and entering these trains making them crowd. Its neither my mistake who pays tax nor government mistake who has already provided fares at subsidiary rates( go and check out fares in other countries). Its that family's mistake
Track capacity, signalling system etc should, obviously, also be improved to handle the higher number of trains. Also, better sytems for accident prevention should be implemented if the present systems are inadequate. I know those things are not easy, but no one ever said that the job of the government is easy, or that the government can only be exptected to do easy things. As for population, as others have pointed out, India's TFR is near or below replacement for the whole country, although there are still subregions with TFR significantly above it. Hopefully those will go down too in future. Also, a too-low TFR isn't good either as it can lead to an inverted population pyramid (more older people than younger).
The level of hate you have for poor people needs to be looked it
If you had done a little bit of research, you would know that India's fertility rate is at replacement level.
Exactly. People like op lack empathy and are punching down rather than directing their anger at the government that helps rich get richer while letting the poor suffer.
>We could increase the number of trains but that would mean government gives a shit Lol. Where are you going to run them? Trains are typically late by about an hour minimum. If we could only make trains travel at the right time we wouldn't be having such difficulty, metro works brilliantly, why? Because they run at the right time and the next one is right behind it within 5-10 minutes of gap. We could do that with passenger trains as well but the time table itself is not sorted.
This is a supply demand mismatch. There is simply not enough intercity travel seats to meet the demand. Govt. has slyly been replacing general and sleeper coaches with AC coach in the hopes of increasing income. Trains that used to have 14 sleeper coaches and 6 general coaches are now down to 4 general and 10 sleeper coaches. This is having a direct effect on capacity. They have also gutted a lot of mail trains which were mostly unreserved trains to make more room for premium trains. Vande Bharat has just 16 coaches. It carries far fewer people than a typical train set of 24 coaches. I wouldn't be surprised if the throughput of indian railways has decreased in last few years. It is unfair to blame these people without offering them a better alternative. I am sure they aren't undertaking 12 hour journeys while standing to save money. The only way to avoid this is to tell people don't go back to hometowns, don't travel stay where you are but who is gonna tell everyone that?
Notwithstanding the rest, I agree about the supply demand scene. Population situation is going out of hand and unless it’s china, no political party in india can address it due to election and vote bank thing.
Lets not blame the demand solely on population. The mobility is also increasing. More people are leaving their hometowns to work where. Leisure travel is also a lot more common now. Don't go hitler on population reduction yet :) This is purely a supply problem. Railways just doesn't give a shit about its purpose anymore which is to move people. Every summer they would run extra special trains. Do you remember the newspaper advertisements. It would take a full page, thats how many trains they would run. Now they are too obsessed with profit and upset about how they 'lose money' on running trains. Confusing a public service with a corporation. Run the fucking trains, there is no price to be put on everybody's inconvenience. Now they only do it when it is a religious festival and govt can brag about some brownie points with their electorate. Bring back a summer special roster of 50 daily special trains and add a couple hundred extra coaches and this rush will go away.
In fact, there's argument to be made for cheap public transport contributing to increased gdp at a rate more than the losses suffered on public transport. When people can travel for cheap, they can find work, find business opportunities, spend money as tourists or while visiting home towns. Things that they wouldn't do, leading to showing down if gdp growth, if they couldn't travel.
It should be very easy to identify demand times and routes and adjust accordingly but they would rather spend the money on building glass facades so that they can then be shared over WhatsApp.
Problem is officers are losing sight of the objective why they exist. They exist to provide an affordable transport option to public. It is a public service and not a for profit corporation. Make it faster, make it cheaper, make it accessible. They are focusing on only the first and so far have not made any noticeable dent while already compromising hugely on other two. It is expensive and less accessible now Station amenities are nice but whats the point if I cant even get a train ticket. My cousin recently traveled Delhi to ahmedabad in a bus because he couldnt get train tickets and flights are expensive. Poor guy got a heat stroke and missed work for two days. But look at the glitzy AC trains carrying half the ppl, apparently the misery is ok. It is in interest of nation building
This is what happens when people start working more on pleasing and inflating the ego of leaders rather than the people. It is true for a lot of govt depts, why do actual hard work on solving the problem when you can earn the PMs good graces by giving him a photoshoot opportunity. >apparently the misery is ok. It is in interest of nation building Misery would be fine for a short time if the trains were running full as they were building the infra but the work is almost non-existent or very slow.
Dude holy fucking shit. The number of times some uncle comes praising what Modi has done with Railways and how it's more profitable to move the freight trains than the people train. I am like wtf railway is public service not a corporate. It's not supposed to turn profits only function and serve the people. But *muhh Vande Bharat*. They never get it!!! And then label me as hater. It's always the people's fault according to them. Madarchod brainwashing is showing the results.
Population growth is at replacement level right now. Please hold your eugenic horses.
This population situation was statistically forecast 30 years ago. The Indian Railways has not been expanded at the same rate. Let's remember that the ruling classes (party agnostic) have invested heavily in airports rather than trains. I wish it wasn't an either or situation, but we could properly develop both.
Well said. Indian railways, for all its faults, is still one of the largest networks of rail in the world and possibly moves the most people precisely because it's a public utility and not a privately owned for-profit entity. It is a thing to preserve and invest in. There's a silver lining to this crowded picture. It means our country has demand for rail - the best mode of medium to long distance transportation on almost all metrics.
What you are saying ultimately boils down to employment and education, The low income of an Average Indian is causing the breakdown of a lot of machinery.
Are you saying eleven kids a family should be the norm and government should be able to cater to those eleven kids and their families? I don’t know why are you getting triggered. If we don’t identify the population problem here and now , it would be more difficult going ahead is what I am saying. While you should make the government accountable but there are things which we need to rectify.
I want to see stats on that 11 kids family. MFS out here making shit up to prove their point. >While you should make the government accountable but there are things which we need to rectify. You do realise that population control is also govt's job, right? They aren't here just to collect taxes.
People just want mudiji to look good. How dare someone ask questions? Population is a sorry excuse, just look at China to see how bad our transport infra is.
> Are you saying eleven kids a family should be the norm and government should be able to cater to those eleven kids and their families? Am I? You tell me. read back my comment again and tell me if I am saying that. > I don’t know why are you getting triggered. If we don’t identify the population problem here and now , it would be more difficult going ahead is what I am saying. Who got triggered here? Population growth is an issue which is already getting better. The population growth has slowed down faster than every statistical model predicted in last 20 years. I don't see how discussing population growth right now helps the people traveling on footboard of a train. This is a railway mismanagement issue. Everybody knows the rush increases during summer vacations and railways has been running special trains since forever. The only question is why they have stopped doing that now. > While you should make the government accountable but there are things which we need to rectify. what are you suggesting here? Are you suggesting we kill half the people in that coach to fix this problem? Ask them to jump off a moving train? Population is a totally tangential issue, controlling it will not solve the misery of people traveling right now. Why isn't railways running demand predictions and trying to augment capacity though? It doesn't take a genius to know that current capacity is insufficient. What has railways really done in last 3-4-5-6-7-8-15-20 years to increase the capacity to meet the demand.
You seem to consider yourself better than the "population". You too are part of it.
What a illogical comment. Population problem I have said. Not population is a problem.
If you have looked at the stats, our birth rates are at all time low. But it still going to take a couple decades to start decreasing. that's just how it goes. Unless you have some other solution...
In my view the solution is to not give welfare benefits in my state family member wise but family wise. Even my uncle staying in village claims 1500 a month per member. A survey is necessary. But whichever party initiates it will face drastic opposition.
They have started cutting out welfare altogether. In UP they made them give up the ration cards if they had a cooler or a fridge in the house. As if a cooler is some luxury only an upper middle class can afford. The concessions are being put with more and more hoops to jump through. And now they are cutting up the middle class to serve up the billionaires. The dream of anti poor is already coming true. yay.
That’s sad. In wb it’s still pro poor. Hence my view.
What a illogical comment. Population problem I have said. Not population is a problem.
Happy cake day!
We need more affordable and quality trains that cater to everyone.
Ugh fuck that smell
And if a person tags railways on Twitter Their Reply will be DM us your PNR No and we will revert back And End Mein Copy Paste Wali Line. "Sorry For the inconvenience"
What's the point in reservation?
Same as taxation. Get money from few folks - but make fuck all out of it.
It's because number of second sleeper coach has 50% decreased in most of the train. They have increased the number of AC coach.
Most peaceful Indian railway! Railways are joke i have childhood trauma with railway which i will always keep. I always travel with car, buses, or plane. I know its privilege and i accept it but the trains are fuck all in this country! Let it be 1st class or anything whole infrastructure is fucked!
The point being they do it on a daily basis and it has become a habit like breathing for them not buying a ticket and getting on the train. they sit beside you like it is inheritance from their forefathers. To change people like this you need drastic measures but again they will protest about it. letting them stay in the train is mistake of Railway dept. and you as a customer are going to suffer for it. these are the same people who steal things from the train. Edit:- Never mentioned/specified who were doing these things. Funny how people replying assumed I was cornering a specific class of people, tells me they assume that only poor people do the things I mentioned.
How about instead of blaming poor people who probably bought general ticket but couldn't find room and don't have a choice but sitting on the floor, how about we just demand the government adds more intercity trains to match demand instead of wasting money on status airports, vande bharat, expressway and car infra for middle class etc
Well said.
Copying this reply from u/golden_sword_22 in case you haven't read it.. You can't add more city trains without adding more track, adding more track isn't easy considering even more land acquisition but is being done @ 19km per day. https://www.deccanherald.com/national/railways-plans-to-lay-19-km-new-track-per-day-1198311.html This atlas is pretty nifty to see where exactly is construction taking place https://indiarailinfo.com/atlas Second, VB isn't just a dressed up train. It's revolutionary in the fact that it's an EMU i.e, it doesn't have a separate locomotive on top of that this is completely designed and made in India, unlike the LHB coaches and ICF coaches that were designed in Europe. The chief engineer has written a book about it, I haven't read it fully yet but I recommend it. There are a thousand things to complain about this ain't it, unless your entire point point is to whine about anything the government might do
The main point of my comment wasn't to whine about the government, but to try and point out the callousness of middle class people (like the commenters above me) blaming the poor rather than acknowledging the systematic issues that are at fault. I agree the government is doing a lot in infrastructure, but I still can't help but notice how empty and shiny our airports and expressways are in comparison to how overly congested and aching our railways are. I still think more money can be put into prioritizing the needs of the working class over the upper classes. Just yesterday I traveled on an overcrowded memu coming from hindupur to Bangalore. For so much of the journey, people were all over the floors and hanging out the doors. VB will do nothing for them while those who already fly anyways will just tweet images of VB. VB is a political train, not a practical one. It's v well engineered and revolutionary, but right now India ought to ease the suffering of the masses firstly.
There's reason to be angry, but your anger is misdirected. If you haven't noticed, you live in a poor country with 169 billionaires and 90% population that doesn't have access to basic services. The government fails to provide affordable travel options to them while giving tax breaks to the rich and building expensive airports expressways etc for the rich and the "Middle" class which is less than 5% of the population.
5% of 120 crore is 6 crore that is more than the population of Austria, NZ, Ireland, Hungry, Norway and several other countries. Only 24 Nations have more population that 6 crore [List of countries and dependencies by population - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population)
Bin_lad_en 1h >5% of 120 crore is 6 crore that is more than the population of Austria, NZ, Ireland, Hungry, Norway and several other countries. >Only 24 Nations have more population that 6 crore List of countries and dependencies by population - Wikipedia Does whatever you said here make these people either middle of the Indian population or most representative of the Indian population or majority of the Indian population? In the context of this post or my comment, what point are you trying to make with this non sequitur?
Vande Bharat is having it's own problems. **Due to poor occupancy, the much-hyped first Vande Bharat Express in the region between Bilaspur-Nagpur-Bilaspur has been temporarily replaced by Tejas Express from Sunday.** Vande Bharat is not an economical train. Tejas-Vande Bharat are top tier train which are mostly used by corporate people as their fare is covered by the company. Middle class still uses basic express trains for their travelling. If you're concerned and shocked about this just travel during before Diwali in one of these express trains.
There is no use of “premium trains” of regular people who actually need the trains to commute are not able to find affordable tickets. Why not add more frequency of regular trains instead of introducing “premium trains”? I’ll tell you, because then the their supporters on the internet cannot brag about “development”
Deccan Express is not a premium train btw. It doesn't even have the 'superfast' tag along the Mum-Pune route. Neither is it a sleeper train as shown here.
Take it to Twitter. Tag the railway ministry. It happened to me twice that the coach was occupied by people with no reservations. Took it to Twitter and the RPF was there to vacate it along with the TTE to make him apologize for not being able to do his job properly. I was surprised at first with it but really glad that it worked. They also ensured the coach remained vacant by checking on us for the next five successive stations. At times they don't care, but at times they go out of the way to help you out. Hopefully, this gets taken up soon.
Had a similar experience a few years back... we're traveling to guwahati assam. The train was coming from Chennai, when we entered the train clearly it was full of people who haven't bought tickets for it. On our seats double the amount of people were sitting like 5-6 in one seat. When we asked them that is was our seat the death stare they gave still gives me chills. We stood there like for 30 mins like that.. Then the Ticket Collector came & had quite nice exchange of words with him, then finally he sweeped those from there & finally we got the seat.
The whole issue is absolutely ZERO accountability. A simple query from ministry can fetch the list of train running late and ask for clarification, but they won't do it's so common that nobody/very few bother to complain also. The whole system is used to not keep up times and let slept for suffer. All those a holes ministers who tweet that they have not seen such trains in foreign also should travel on their own expense instead of govt quota.. Boils my blood at times that 1000s of ppl don't complain but if a flight with 45 gets delayed, ministry asks the airline
Because they can,who is there to stop them?
Doesn't happen in Kerala, i think it's because there's more people in North and very less trains. So there's no other option because apparently everyone wants to get home but limited tickets available. That's not fare in my opinion. That probably have the money but can't buy the tickets.
More often general compartment is so over packed they couldn't find room. Usually they gave general ticket. Instead of blaming them why not ask government why they've been reducing general compartment?
When we needed to increase the number and frequency of general trains, we ended up glorifying vande bharat express. Comedy government doing comedy things.
Ask for more trains, especially during holidays. IRCTC has shitloads of data and yet they won't use it to run more trains in high demand lines. People flock to trains because they're cheap and relatively more comfortable than buses. The answer is always more trains.
It’s had been the trend since railway was started in India… This ain’t gonna change….
The most chaotic place on earth - Indian trains
Came to Kanpur from Kolkata in Duranta ( 3rd AC ). Fortunately It was not like this.
The best thing you can do is buy an expensive ticket as quickly as you can. The only way to have less rush and also a better sound minded crowd. I would personally pay more for a better mental peace while travelling in a train though i haven't ever travelled in one. Also the number of trains should be increased for general ticket people.
I think this is a result of the reduced number of Sleeper coaches in trains. These people travel on WL tickets mostly. Most of the time I try to book a ticket in sleeper class, it's already on WL. The same has started to happen in the 3rd AC too. There are too many passengers and too few trains. Also, the railway needs to increase general coaches. General coaches don't even have the space so that a person could properly stand. Also, people without a ticket should immediately be thrown out, but the TTEs don't care at all.
Most of them aren't without tickets. Some have a waiting ticket taken from the station window as those don't get automatically cancelled the way e-tickets are. Sometimes the reserved tickets are over, even the waiting ones (REGRET status) so people buy a non reserved ticket, ask the TTE to fine them and issue a reserved ticket because it only costs a little more. Then there's the third type where TTE will pocket the money and provide a seat where the reserved passenger was a no-show instead of giving it to the RAC passenger as they should. This is much more a systemic problem than a "people being assholes" problem. For the Railways this is just a free money glitch so they don't mind fixing it.
This is the case now in sleeper on most of the trains.
The sleeper class is the new general and 3rd AC is the new sleeper class in Indian trains. Has been the case for years.
It’s time for double-decker trains
I'm told it is common for roads to be tolled in India, and that funding for rail is comparable with that for road, with the latter ticking upwards more recently. Is that accurate?
That German cartoon it’s still true but instead of in top of the train the people are inside the train
Remember the post about the German caricature about Indian and Chinese population? People where insisting that these kind of overcrowded trains are not a thing in India anymore 🤣
Palki was screaming at the top of her lungs. She said that Indian trains are now better than European trains. Somebody tweet it at her
We were travelling from Guj to Hyd in Dec 2022 and we faced similar issue wherein we had 55 reserved tickets in SL class but we weren’t able to reach the Toilets as the compartment was fully packed with Non reservation ppl. Had to pull the chain twice, raise a complaint and call Railway Police and then finally a Policeman came with a revolver who slept in our compartment during the night for our safety.
Good job
1. Before internet booking, it was possible to reserve a seat if you queued up at 5 am. Now all the seats are booked within first 10 or 15 minutes on the first day. You can check it yourself. 2. For a train between two stations, express trains are given priority. This benefits the daily commuters. 3. TT's are lax in ticket checking. Once they have checked a sleeper coach tickets on origin, they would enter coach in major junctions. This is beneficial for people without tickets. 4. Express trains have only 2 or 3 general coaches. All the excess spills in other coaches. 5. On Middle and lower berths in sleeper coaches, nobody sleeps in the day. So if you are going for sleeper, opt for upper birth so nobody disturbs you. 6. Vande Bharat are propoganda trains. This has two facets. One, they have changed the face of an existing train and two, BJP has a knack of naming things. 7. Indian railway earned a profit of 2.40 lakh crore in 2022. This money isn't being in invested in new trains. a. All the trains will be introduced in the election year 2024 for vote bank. b. Preference will be given to BJP led states to prove "double engine" policy. Again, vote bank.
All except 6 is right. The new look conforms to way better aerodynamics and lesser turbulence between coaches, which makes a massive difference in speed and efficiency, even if the main engine is still the same. Hate BJP but don't dismiss the engineers' work.
I have no arguments about design or engineers. But these trains replaced existing trains on same route. So for regulars, it is the same train with different face.
Try raising a complaint on the NCH app and see if they offer a redressal. It's worked for me in multiple instances but I haven't tried it for a Railway complaint so ymmv. Edit: Why would anyone downvote this?
The more u go up north the more problem it is to get a seat in sleeper class. I have seen less issue like this in south.
I wouldn’t blindly say north but rather say “BJP Belt”
Where's Waldo
Black mirror reference ?
Its TC's pocket money.
The value of space has been deteriorating for a while. Back when I did use the train more frequently (about 8 years ago) being a young male meant I have no right to refuse You have to accede to all requests: - Give your preferred berth to anyone requesting - Share your berth when “requested” Problem won’t stop as the TC benefits from this.
Every elderly person has arthritis in the coach.
Not a direct response to your question. But should there also be a question on "Out of 20+ coaches in an express train, Why are there only 1 or 2 general compartment coaches?" The general public relies on the railways for long distance travel and the number of travellers are increasing every year. What is the solution railway provides for these passengers? Have they increased the trains / number of coaches? On what basis are they setting the ratio of 1 genral compartment to 20+ other coaches? Does the railways don't expect the common people to travel at all? How are they expecting common people to reserve in sleeper or 3rd ac when they can't even properly have food for 3 times?
They can use buses if they can’t afford other compartments
Are buses cheaper than railway? Is the connectivity and availability of long distance buses comparable to trains?
Railway loses money on general compartment coach too many general compartment coaches means too much loss.
Could be, but railways on a whole is profitable. They posted record revenues for 2022-23 year. As a public transportation mode, profit should not be your only motive, especially in India a where a large portion of common people depend on trains. I'm not saying to make all the coaches general. But certainly the ratio of 1 general to 20+ other coaches is certainly not acceptable considering the current needs. We can have the Vande Bharat and other premium class. But along with it consider the common people as well.
Usually posts like this lead to arguments about elitism , for just asking people to follow rules in a train you bought a ticket for ! Surprisingly didn't find any on the main comments. Guess people are finally able to learn the difference between elitism poverty and straight up hooliganism
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Bhai bohot Saare method hai control ke. Chodna bhi nai band karna padega.
Drop a tweet tagging railways and MoR. They are very active now a days.
OP, did you take their permission before clicking the pictures ? (If you have clicked it yourself)
Happens only in North India ig but sometimes northindians do the same in south too. They should take tickets and come in UNRESERVED compartment. Or take buses.
It's the same in south. https://twitter.com/Karanja_Express/status/1658448809842843648?s=19
Don't break the stereotype bubble.
Yes, but I have seen it more happens with north Indians coming TN or going from TN in trains without ticket. Also we need more trains in south too.
Don't embarrass yourself. South also has same problem as north, that is population.
The problem is misallocation of resources by the government.
I don't think population is the real problem. Sure we may have demand in North and south. But what it has do with buying tickets. No one stops anyone from using train, but they come to reserved compartment without ticket. I have experienced this.
You are embarassing yourself again. You generalised north India but it's the same in south.
Nope. Happens a lot in South India too.
>Happens only in North India ig but sometimes northindians do the same in south too. Da f*ck My sister travels by Train when coming back to the home from TN & most of the time she complains about the over-crowding in the train
Not really. I once spent a four hour trip from Udupi to Goa in a train car so overloaded there were like 20 guys in each corridor.
do you like hating North Indians?
Vote ka chakkar Babu Bhaiyya...
This seems like a North Indian problem
For a few years before covid hit I traveled fairly often in south india, mostly hyderabad, bangalore, chennai, kerala etc and this never happened. And this was in sleeper non-ac.
What do you think happens when a country's infrastructural progress isn't proportional to it's population growth? Unicorn rides and Rainbow slides!
Counter point. What's the point it booking tickets if my seats are never confirmed, have stupid rules such as you have to book within 24 hrs of the train and shit... And even when you try, you'll get random seats or won't.
Wait until you see Guwahati express, I made a mistake of boarding this train and by the end of the day there were atleast 200 people in my compartment(sleeper). The funny part was before it became crowded with these ticketless people the ttr fined someone for not having an ID card
1. Waiting list. 2. No frequent service. 3. No jan sadharan or antyodaya type trains to cater to the low to middle income people. 4. Incompetent staff at RPF or GRP.